Town Board: FIT Center will remain open, but may move

The Town of Shelter Island is preparing an action plan should the Shelter Island School close the FIT Center to bring it up to code. The center’s exercise equipment will be relocated during renovations, preferably to the recreation hall at St. Gabriel’s Retreat, Supervisor Jim Dougherty and Recreation Director Garth Griffin announced at Tuesday’s Town Board work session.

The FIT Center — a fitness/weight room and physical therapy facility built as a community-wide effort in the late 1990s — is physically part of the school, attached to the side of the gymnasium, but it is operated by the town’s Recreation Department for residents who purchase memberships.

Earlier this month, the Shelter Island School Board announced that it must bring the FIT Center into compliance with State Education Department standards for school facilities sooner rather than later. The center never received a certificate of occupancy from the state before it opened over 10 years ago, and it does not comply with all applicable fire and other school building safety codes.

“There are numerous … I won’t say violations, but things that need to be cleared up before the State Education Department will write the certificate of occupancy,” Mr. Griffin told the Town Board Tuesday. And the school needs that certificate before other school facilities projects can be pursued, he added.

Funds to pay for the improvements have been set aside, Mr. Griffin said. The costs are estimated at $140,000, according to School Business Official Sam Schneider. “We safeguarded monies through capital funds every year for this exact situation,” Mr. Griffin told the Town Board. “The problem is we have to vacate the premises.”

“That’s where we get involved,” Mr. Dougherty said, “finding a home for the FIT Center for four months.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind, we need to do something,” Mr. Griffin said. The other option is to prorate membership fees that have already been paid, which are just enough to fund FIT Center operations.  The accounting is done “to a tee,” he explained; there’s no wiggle room to pro- rate the membership fees. “It would put us over the edge,” he added.

About a third of the FIT Center users are here primarily in the summer, he said, when the proposed closure would take place. For these reasons, the town is looking to relocate the equipment and programs, including the center’s physical therapy services, provided in conjunction with Eastern Long Island Hospital.

Mr. Dougherty recently contacted Father Bob Joerger, the provincial leader responsible for St. Gabe’s as the Passionist Fathers prepare to sell the Coecles Harbor property. “I got a very positive reaction,” the supervisor said. “He has to run it up the ladder but he’s all for it.” The equipment would be housed in the recreation hall behind the dining hall on the St. Gabe’s campus. Other relocation options include the Island Boatyard and the Cobbetts Lane Firehouse.

Should St. Gabe’s agree to host the facility this summer, “The FIT program could be waterfront,” Councilman Ed Brown, his way of promoting the relocation plan.

OTHER TOPICS

During the January 25 work session, the Town Board also discussed:

• Encouraging news on an effort to reroute Hamptons-bound helicopter traffic away from the East End. Expert review of terrorist threats from air traffic has convinced the Federal Emergency Management Agency that helicopter flights transiting JFK and LaGuardia air space are too risky, Supervisor Dougherty said. To avoid that airspace, helicopters must fly off the southern shore of Long Island, a route local residents have supported since helicopter arrivals were directed over Shelter Island in 2008. The Federal Aviation Administration is “sullen but not mutinous” over the recommendation, according to Mr. Dougherty. Any formal rerouting is “still up in the air,” he said.

• A draft law to require stormwater plans for construction sites that disturb an acre or more of land. The law is modeled after one mandated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which enforces the MS4 runoff mitigation program, part of the state’s compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. Runoff prevention plans for construction sites, and their implementation, would be overseen by town building inspectors. The law, if adopted, would be phased in over several months to allow time to train town inspectors and licensed contractors on stormwater prevention planning.

Councilman Glenn Waddington described the law, which requires site characterization and soil sampling, as “pretty burdensome,” and questioned why the DEC is continuing on the MS4 track when some other states have backed off.

• Coastal Barrier zoning issues. Two proposed laws were reviewed — one establishing a separate zone for the causeways to Big and Little Ram islands, and one adding new rules for the causeways to the town wetlands law. Comments from the Planning Board are expected before the proposed code changes go to a public hearing next month.

• Ed Ciaglo and his service to his country and neighbors. Mr. Dougherty called for a moment of silence to be observed in memory of Mr. Ciaglo, who died Saturday. He credited the past American Legion Commander, “a man of action,” for his leadership in the transfer of the Legion Hall to the town for use as a youth center.